Toaru Majutsu no Index:Virtual On Prologue

For a brief moment, the spiky-haired boy named Kamijou Touma forgot where he was.

A dull pain throbbed deep in his head.

An alert stabbed into his mind more sharply than an alarm clock.

He was inside a cocoon-like spindle-shaped machine that did not feel all that large. It was strangely soft and seemed to suction itself to his back. His hands held a device only a little bigger than a box of chocolates. That device and its sticks and buttons for his thumbs were his only lifeline.

There was nothing inside the cocoon. Even without a seatbelt, his body was naturally fixed inside the seat and there were none of the monitors, buttons, and switches that would fill a fighter craft. Optional settings could alter the layout to one’s liking, but the small device in his hands was all he needed to control the machine.

But no one really knew if that lifeline was really there or not.

The device and even his own existence “inside” the machine were uncertain.

But he could touch it and it would respond accordingly, so there was no problem.

“…!!”

The world rapidly opened up around him.

He was not simply receiving information through a monitor. He sat inside the cocoon-like machine, yet he could clearly sense the heat of the air, a burning smell, and even some presences and killer intent that did not fall under any of his five senses.

He finally remembered.

He raised his heavy head and bit his rusty-tasting lips.

He outputted what he needed to do.

“Listen, Temjin,” he groaned. “You aren’t a tool of killing. I won’t let you be one.”

He touched the device in his hands once more. He stroked the top of the sticks with his thumbs and confirmed its solid presence with his entire hands. He entrusted everything to it.